Aug 1, 2018

TV ROUNDUP: Rooster Teeth First, Disney Junior, Netflix, Cartoon Network

In the latest TV programming news, Rooster Teeth has expanded its animation project slate for its subscription streaming service, and Netflix has partnered with key creative members of Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are also new projects from Cartoon Network and Disney Junior. [It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia creators, producers, and stars Rob McElhenny, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton's production company RCG will produce the dark comedy series Spikeface. Austin, Texas-based Rooster Teeth, the production company behind the popular web series "RWBY," is launching "Rooster Teeth First," a subscription streaming service available online and on Xbox One, Apple TV, iOS and Android apps. has ordered eight episodes that will premiere as an original series in 2019 on.

Animation will be handled in-house by Rooster Teeth Animation, and the series will be executive produced by Rob McElhenny, Rooster Teeth co-founders Matt Hallam and Bernie Barnes, and 3 Arts Entertainment.

The series is based on the ideas of screenwriters and executive producers Jeff Barbanel and Itay Grunfeld. The main character, Spike Face, is a horror mogul who cruelly murders a couple in a roadside motel and discovers that the couple has a baby girl. He decides to raise the orphan as his own daughter, much to the annoyance of his roommates, who are also horror icons and would rather destroy a small child than help raise a child. Casting details have yet to be announced.

Also debuting in 2019 will be Rooster Teeth's animated series Gen:LOCK, created by Grey G. Haddock, head of Rooster Teeth Animation Like RWBY, Gen:LOCK is an anime-inspired 3D series. The story takes place in the future, where Earth's last free society has been defeated in a global war. In response, a diverse team of young pilots is recruited to pilot a new generation of mecha, giant weaponized robotic bodies.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Michael B. Jordan, star of "Black Panther" and a big fan of the cartoon, would voice the first candidate for the mecha program, fighter pilot Julian Chase. Jordan's production company, Outlier Society Productions, is co-producing Gen:LOCK.

Other key voice talent includes David Tennant as Dr. Rufus Weller, inventor of Gen:LOCK technology, and Dakota Fanning as Miranda Worth, a mech expert and Chase's love interest. Koichi Yamadera, known for his role as Spike in "Cowboy Bebop," will voice Kazu Iida, a former tank driver in the Japanese army, and Monica Real, who voiced Bulma in the English version of "Dragon Ball Z," will voice Colonel Raquel Marin.

Rooster Teeth is a subsidiary of Otter Media, a joint venture between AT&T and the Charnin Group.

Disney Junior is the production partner of the Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner and Toronto-based Guru, which has produced shows such as Justin Time, Paw Patrol, and True and the Rainbow Kingdom. Guru's original work will air in Disney Junior US, Australia/New Zealand, South Korea and India.

Pikwik is aimed at children ages 2-5 and was created by Guru Studio executive creative director Frank Falcone, development executive Rachel Reed Marcus, and former EVP Mary Bredin. The first season will consist of 52 11-minute episodes.

The series is set in the town of Pickwick, where Suki the hedgehog lives with her friends Trevor the raccoon, Hazel the cat, and Tibor the hippo. Suki and her team help the town by delivering parcels full of surprises to the town's residents. Pickwick aims to encourage teamwork, responsibility, and critical thinking in its pre-school audience.

Guru is looking to develop the brand with toys, apps, and other consumer products as the project premieres on Disney Junior.

Netflix has announced that Aaron Ehlers and Giancarlo Volpe, from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Justin Richmond, game director of Uncharted, have created the fantasy adventure series The Dragon Prince". Ehlers will write the script, Richmond will direct, and Volpe will executive produce. All episodes will be released simultaneously on streaming services on September 14.

"The Dragon Prince" will be the first film from Wonderstorm Media Studios, co-founded by Ehlers, Richmond, and Justin Santistevan. The studio is simultaneously developing a video game set in the same world as the series. Wonderstorm's lead investor, Gigi Pritzker of production company MWM, will also serve as executive producer.

An official trailer for the series was shown at San Diego Comic-Con, giving a glimpse of the three main characters. Brothers Callum, voiced by Jack DeSena (Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Ezran, voiced by Sasha Rojen, are princes who unexpectedly join forces with Layla (Paula Burrows), a moon-shadow elf who was supposed to be an assassin, to bring peace to their war-torn country. They form an unlikely team.

The animation studio is Bardell, with multiple locations in British Columbia, Canada.

The beloved video game character Rockman is back on the small screen with Cartoon Network's Rockman: Fully Charged. A co-production between Canada's DHX Media, Dentsu Entertainment USA, and Man of Action Entertainment (the characters and team behind Ben 10, Generator Rex, and Big Hero 6). Joe Kelly, one of the creators of the Ben 10 series, is executive producer.

Beginning August 3, 10 episodes will be available on Cartoon Network's app and various television providers' VOD and on-demand streaming platforms. New episodes will then air every Sunday, beginning with a pilot on August 5. This precedes the October 2 release of Capcom's Mega Man 11. In Canada, it will premiere in fall 2018 on DHX Television's Family Channel.

A sneak peek of the first episode, titled "Throwing Shade," was recently premiered at San Diego Comic-Con The Mega Man character, first created by Capcom in 1987, is a bright robot schoolboy with nanocore technology and an alter ego named Aki Light returns as a superhero. As Mega Man, he fights crime and seeks to unite the humans and robots of Silicon City with the help of old friends like Rush the Robot Dog and new characters like Megamini and Snarlite.